Family: Man froze to death in his Mich. home

FREELAND, Mich. (WJRT/Gray News) - A Michigan family says their 62-year-old relative was found dead in his unheated home.

The family visited to invite the man, Arnoul Jaros, over for dinner, but there was no answer at the door.

They say this isn't uncommon, because he typically is not interested in socializing.

This time, however, there were no sounds of movement inside and a full mailbox with the last date postmarked Jan. 16.

That raised enough red flags to immediately call the police.

“They went inside. They were inside for just a few minutes, and they came out and told us they found him frozen to death. That’s what they said to us,” said Karina Jaros, the man’s niece.

Dying in 26-degree cold alone was bad enough, but walking around the home and seeing how he suffered first-hand put the family in tears.

"He's very, very skinny. He didn't have a lot of fat to live on, and if you can't cook, can't take a hot shower, can't microwave anything to eat or drink, eating cold foods, there's no words," said Karin Jaros, the man's sister-in-law.

The man's family says he never complained about his physical health.

He tried to cope with the cold with blankets and layers of curtains to cover the windows, but they say Arnoul Jaros suffered from a form of social anxiety.

"He wouldn't do anything. I was hopeful that we could help him with that and get him some sort of behavioral health interventions to help him with that anxiety, but I know that's a real hard step for people to take," Karin Jaros said.